Yo,
I would like your opinions on two things:
1- As a DM, would you allow this build in Pathfinder
2- how effective do you think this build would be?
I'm currently playing in a pretty volatile mega-dungeon. It's being run with 3.5 monsters, and mostly 3.5 rules (with some exceptions for those who built PFDR PC's for an XP penalty). It's 20 levels deep, and scales in difficulty accordingly (convenient, no?). In the first session, 2 pc's died, and quit. In the 4th session, and every other round since, 1 pc has died, and rerolled. I, along with our cleric (now forced tank/cleric), have managed to survive to 4th level. I'm currently playing a Draconic Evoker Sorcerer, who blasts primarily with Electric spells (I mimic the powers of the Song Dragon). Given that people keep dying, i've scoured my old sourcebooks and the interwebz for an appropriate 5 level PrC, which I think i've found: War Mage.
Arcane Aegis (Su): The war mage may designate one ally within 30 ft and add his Charisma modifier (if positive) as a morale bonus to the ally’s AC. Every other level (at 3rd and at 5th level) the number of allies so aided increases by 1.
Battle Magic (Ex): At 1st level, the War Mage increases the effectiveness of his combat spells. Any spell cast by the War Mage that causes damage gains a +1 bonus hit point per die of damage. At 3rd level, this bonus increases to +2, and at 5th level, this bonus increases to +3.
Armored Spellcasting (Ex): A war mage is better able than other characters to cast arcane spells while wearing armor. At 2nd level, the war mage reduces the arcane spell failure chance for any armor he wears by -5%. At 4th level, this ability increases to -10%. This ability stacks with the benefits of other classes that have this ability.
Metamagic (Ex): A war mage learns to use his spells to a maximum effectiveness against his enemies. At 2nd level and again at 4th, the war mage gains a bonus metamagic feat, selected from the following list: Empower Spell, Enlarge Spell, Maximize Spell, and Widen Spell.
Something of note: The War Mage has full caster level progression
+ Enhanced Evocation Damage, + Enhanced party AC, + Armored spell casing (see my proposed armor below), + 2 metamagic feats FOR - 2 bloodline spells, - 1 bloodline feat, -1 capstone Bloodline power (i will try to remedy this with Robes of Arcane Heritage)
Given that death is so prevalent, one cannot be too careful.
Medium Mithral Armor: 4,000 gp
Breastplate: 200 gp
+2 Armor (+1 enhancement, Nimble (MIC)): 4,000 gp
Thistledown Armor (RotW): 250 gp
Total: 8,450/2(crafted)=4,225 gp
This nets:
+7 AC
10% Arcane Spell Failure (negated by Armored Spellcasting)
+5 Max Dex Bonus (which I intend on using for rays)
0 Armor Check Penalty
So what do you think of the build? Is it borked? Is it not a valuable trade-off? Would you allow it?
Thanks!
edit: spoiler formatting, added some stuff
Maybe I posted this in the wrong subforum... but wow it's cold and lonely out here.
It is the weekend and people are either gaming or getting drunk. :)
I would bump it on Monday and Tuesday.
If you are a focused on blasting the war mage seems really powerful. I would not allow it in a standard game, and I don't know if people are dying because they are playing poorly or because the GM is trying to kill them. If he is really using CR+ encounters then I think it should be ok to use the war mage.
I would also suggest you pick up dazing spell. It is in the APG. I would also concentrate more on miss chance than AC, and avoid Arcane Spell Failure.
Whether or not the trade off is worth it depend on how high the game is supposed to go. If it stays below level 10 it is probably not a bad idea, but if it goes into the higher levels then it is better to not multiclass.
I personally would not allow it since it is a Dragonlance PRC and I like to keep PRCs that are world specific world specific especially since it does take a while for a caster to qualify.
I do have a warmage in the Age of Mortals campaign I was in. He was a 5th level Wizard (Kingfisher)/ 2 Wizard of High Sorcery (White)/War Mage (4)
Oh, the war mage abilities have been errated per Towers of High Sorcery.
Shalafi,
I'm not too worried about world v world, because nothing about the War Mage is definitively "Dragonlance", it could fit anywhere. I'm more worried about balance, is this a broken class, and do you feel that it's effective.
Wraith,
Why would you say that it's better not to multiclass? I plan on taking this thing to lvl 20. How would you enhance miss chance?
blasting sucks. i see this as making a crappy school less useless.
Crossblooded orc/draconic sorcerer getting up to +5 damage per die. blasting needs this buff.
You asked for advice and I gave it.
Honestly if you going to pull the Warmage card pull it from the 3.5 Complete Arcana and go nuts. There is also a Warmage of Cormyr in the Forgotten Realms book that is a prestige class so War Mage may not be exclusive to DragonLance. Also grab Metamagic Feats from Complete Arcana too, Sudden <insert metamagic> spells are the best. The Warmage from Complete Arcana is a very broken class be warned.
Now as for your proposed armor make sure you have Med armor prof or your still at other penalties.
As for whether or not I would allow it I honestly don't know. When I allowed my players to make their characters I said play something you will enjoy I will work out the rest. I make up my games based on the party line up not with what I think the party line up is going to be. I currently have a group of 7 and between all of them I have no primary healer. Everyone has taken steps to get around that with wands, potions, scrolls, and even spells. However the players did not sit down with those who had healing abilities and said. "Take these so you can keep me alive."
Of course I am not sending my players into a multi-layer dungeon of doom.
Warmage in complete Arcana was not overpowered at all. in fact, it was quite weak.
it was a 2 stat caster (int/cha) that only did one thing ever. blasting. the biggest thing it got was int mod per die rolled for spellcasting. which meant nothing when most foes eventually had stuff like resistance and immunity to most spells, or absurdly high spell resistances. they were useless against golems and effectively a glorified archer.
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Now, now.
Orb spells worked perfectly fine against golems, it's why they were designed, and archers don't AoE.
Warmages did the blasting thing fairly well.
And it was Int mod per SPELL, not per DIE. The Sudden feats effectively gave them a Nova that might be hard to beat. Combine with things like Twin Spell, Split Ray, and knowing every spell on their list spontaneously, and Warmages really could blast the stuff out of crap. Like the Beguiler, they did a good job doing the blaster job.
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The Dragonlance War mage was errata'd. The bonus damage for spells is three times per day, I believe.
It was considered broken in 3.5 for basically granting a feat and more at every level (two armor feats, two meta feats, aegis, + triple improvement to spellcasting). It's like a poster child for broken PrC's.
What module are you going through, btw? And why is everyone dying? Not going through World's Biggest Dungeon, are you?
==Aelryinth
Aelryinth,
We're going through dungeonaday.com's Dragon's Delve. It's brutal, but very rewarding and extremely fun. More cleverly built puzzles than you can imagine, and a surprisingly high amount of politics for a mega-dungeon. Why are people dying....
1. A trap which included a pressure plate and spikes
2. 2 dire wolves, an Owlbear, and a Bugbear in 1 chained encounter where the only exit was a 20 foot rope
3. Two almost died at lvl 2 by a gibbering mouther which swallowed whole.
4. A SeaHag using evil-eye.
5. At lvl 3 now, I have ~20 hp. I was blasting an owlbear from behind our tank (diagonal burst) with burning hands. He targeted me next, hitting with two claws, bringing me down to 4 hp (with some luck), which allows him a free grapple check. From there he proceeded to gnaw on my head. Fortunately that freed the rest of the party to maneuver and burn down the rest of the HP quickly while our cleric healed me each round.
And well i can't quite remember the rest. What I do know is that enhanced AC, and some additional blasting power will work very well to balance some of this out. Either way, the good thing is that as long as one is alive, the rest of the party may come back at -2 levels.
SolidHalo,
Could you explain what penalties medium (light with mithral) armor with an armor check penalty of 0 and adjusted Arcane Spell Failure rate of 0% are? I thought that the only non-obvious penalties would be those associated with the armor check penalty, which has been solved.
I don't think i'd wear it. I can't see myself wearing a set of fullplate lol. But on top of that, reduced mobility (20 ft), the idea that i'd have to convince my DM to let me enchant over it to make it twilight, and the fact that i'd have to come back from a -3 AC penalty somehow just looks like too much work. I don't like the flavor either, but it's an awesome idea!
I 2nd the complete arcane warmage recomendation. (one of my favs.)
At lvl 7 you can where med armor at no penalty.
Celestial plate is treated as medium armor and is move 30, Kybryn. It's like mithral plate, only +2 better dex benefit then mithral grants.
==Aelryinth
Aerlyinth,
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/magic-armor/specific-magic-armor/celest ial-plate-armor
Heavy armor now treated as medium. Medium armor has restricted speed. Medium treated as light has move 30.
What am I missing? Is the wording different in MIC?
blasting sucks. i see this as making a crappy school less useless.
Crossblooded orc/draconic sorcerer getting up to +5 damage per die. blasting needs this buff.
The Inner Power, A Guide to Sorcerers. Blasting hardly sucks if you follow that guide.
Shalafi,
I'm not too worried about world v world, because nothing about the War Mage is definitively "Dragonlance", it could fit anywhere. I'm more worried about balance, is this a broken class, and do you feel that it's effective.
Wraith,
Why would you say that it's better not to multiclass? I plan on taking this thing to lvl 20. How would you enhance miss chance?
By miss chance I mean things like invisibility, displacement, and mirror image. Yeah I know mirror image is not really miss chance, but it works just as well.
I may have to take that statement back. If you are going the blaster route battle magic is hard to beat.
It seems worth it to multi-class just for this:
"Battle Magic (Ex): At 1st level, the War Mage increases the effectiveness of his combat spells. Any spell cast by the War Mage that causes damage gains a +1 bonus hit point per die of damage. At 3rd level, this bonus increases to +2, and at 5th level, this bonus increases to +3."
A fireball does 10d6+30 if I read that right. What's not to love? Also, I'd personally allow it, as at level 20 you're supposed to be badass, but if you were taking that at low to mid levels I'd not be so sure.
Well im not taking it until lvl 7 or 8. Too many feats!, and lvl 3 spells.
Aerlyinth,
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/magic-armor/specific-magic-armor/celest ial-plate-armorHeavy armor now treated as medium. Medium armor has restricted speed. Medium treated as light has move 30.
What am I missing? Is the wording different in MIC?
Nope, you're right.
It's a subtle buff to fighters, who aren't penalized so. I was misremembering something about inability to run in Medium armor being the restriction. Apologies.
==Aelryinth
This is the worst kind of 3.5 cheese where prestige classes were designed by people who had no idea how to actually play the game or what the power boost might do. But if your DM is dumb enough to let you play it go for it.
worst
cheesedesigned by people who have no idea how to actually play the game
your DM is dumb if he lets you play this
now that's an opinion! thanks!
I thought that his deserved an update. Since then....
1. I died by touching an eldritch pilar that "save-or-die" killed me.
2. Was reincarnated as a lizardfolk, but I use a modified "hat of disguise" to make me elf again. My Con up by +4. Str by +2, and Int down -2.
3. Have leveled up to 7, because we hit an extremely tough encounter which only I survived, and managed to finish, thus I got all the XP, blasting me lightyears ahead of the rest of the party.
4. My 7th lvl was War Mage.
At this point, my stats are as follows:
AC 20, touch 12, flat-footed 19 (+2 shield, +1 Dex, +6 natural, +1 deflection)
hp 79 (2d8+7d6+36)
Fort +11, Ref +3, Will +8
Str 12, Dex 13, Con 18, Int 15, Wis 12, Cha 18/20
My Scintillating Sphere (lightning fireball from Spell Compendium) does 7d6+14 (Draconic bloodline + Battle Magic) which averages 38 damage.
My Shocking (Scorching) Ray does (4d6+8)x2 = 8d6+16 which averages 44 damage.
Anyway, so far, I haven't died from any combat encounters up to lvl 7, just once from a save or die, on which I rolled a nat 1, go figure.
By lvl 10 i'll be wearing the breastplate, boosting my AC from 24 with Mage Armor (29 with Arcane Aegis as I am my own ally per definition of ally), to 27 (32 or 33 with Arcane Aegis).
I don't feel back pushing back a bit considering how deadly this has proven to be!